


Comparisons

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [107]
Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Awkwardness, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, M/M, first I love you, just irrational human emotions as you do, not in like an unhealthy way i dont think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24588940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: Remy manages to pretty spectacularly put his foot in his mouth, but it works out.
Relationships: Background LAMP, Background Logince, Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders, mostly amicable sort-of exes creativisleep
Series: LAOFT Extras [107]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1365505
Comments: 38
Kudos: 430





	Comparisons

**Author's Note:**

> takes place the summer after the main story, and before _Depths_
> 
> For the prompts:
> 
> "Could we get some sweet Remile?" (from an anon)
> 
> "Hi Violet! I’ve been binge-reading LOAFT to get that good content ™ and I love it! So! Much! I’d love to see some more Remile, your bonus chapters of them are fantastic! I’d love to see Remy and Emile talk about the party where Remy and Roman kissed, and I’d love to see them just talk and get vulnerable." (from @melonlord527)
> 
> "You accept LAOFT prompts right? What about some remile, the first time they said i love you to each other?" (from another anon)
> 
> For those who do not know random debate terms, what Logan points out about Remy and Roman’s argument - _ad hominem_ \- is a term for when a debater refutes a point with a personal attack against their opponent instead of something to do with the argument itself. Someone doing this is arguing _ad hominem_ or “to the man.”
> 
> and thank you @trivia-goddess for beta reading, and just generally being a goddess of punctuation as well as trivia alksjdaklsj

Dating Remy was… wow.

It was… kind of dizzying, sometimes, and a lot different than Emile had daydreamed about (when he’d been able to work up the nerve to even daydream about it, anyway).

Emile had sort of assumed Remy would be the type to coax him to cut class and hide in janitor’s closets or up on the school roof, the sort of sneaky trysts Emile read about in books, but Remy wasn’t like that at all.

In fact, now that they were together and Emile was around him more often, slowly learning Remy’s tells and quirks, it was becoming increasingly clear that _Emile_ made _Remy_ just as flustered and nervous as Remy made Emile, which was-

Well. It made Emile even more flustered, actually, though more giggly than nervous. And it was- kind of a little bit flattering, especially when Emile would sometimes give Remy a compliment and feel like he could actually _see_ the blue screen of death in his boyfriend’s eyes.

Or at least – it was _usually_ flattering.

Emile had to try really, _really_ hard to remember it was flattering whenever Remy chatted away with Roman like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Because Roman and Remy were clearly friends, no matter how much they insisted they could barely stand each other, and Emile had _no business_ being jealous of Roman, especially when he _liked_ Roman. Roman was fun, and could be snarky without being cruel, and was clearly head over heels in love with his own boyfriends.

 _No_ business. None! Emile was being totally irrational and completely unfair, to both Roman _and_ Remy.

So Emile linked his arm through Remy’s, set his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder, and firmly pushed that hot, squirmy mass of guilt and jealousy away.

“Listen,” said Roman, jabbing an angry finger at Remy from where he sat in the grass, “Just because you don’t have an appreciation for the technical aspects of a production-”

“Oh my god, _technical?_ What about _Cats_ is technical?”

“The _makeup?_ ” said Roman incredulously, “ _Incredibly_ distinct costumes for a cast of dozens? A hundred piece orchestra-”

“All of which was immortalized in just shy of two hours of sub-par direct-to-video content with _zero_ plot-”

“ _Cats_ has a plot!” exclaimed Roman, “Oh my fucking god, you _always_ say _Cats_ has no plot and it’s _infuriating_ , if you didn’t get the plot it’s because you weren’t paying attention with even one of your five entire brain cells-”

Logan, sitting next to Roman on the ground and mirroring Emile’s own cuddled-up-to-the-boyfriend position, rolled his eyes fondly and cast Emile a sympathetic look. Emile smiled, waving his hand in a “What are you gonna do?” gesture.

“You’re just overly attached to your Granny’s beat-up VCR and the duffle bag full of tapes to match,” snarked Remy.

“No!” said Roman, “Nope, absolutely not, you do _not_ get to change the subject to a personal attack just because you _know_ I’m right-”

“ _Ad hominem_ ,” Logan chimed in helpfully.

“Yes, exactly, what he said!” said Roman, turning to Logan with a bright smile, “Thank you, my love, my valiant defender, my ally in all arguments-”

“ _Roman,_ ” said Logan, sheepish and blushing, “You are being hyperbolic. We are just as frequently on the opposing sides of debates as we are on the same,”

Roman grinned even wider, leaning down to brush a kiss on Logan’s cheek.

“Gross,” said Remy cheerfully, “If you’re gonna mack on each other in public at least have the decency to not do it _directly_ in front of me,”

It was clear Remy regretted it the _second_ it came out of his mouth. He grimaced immediately, and there was a painfully long stretch of awkward silence, in which all of them pointedly did not look at each other.

“Hey, Emi, you need another pop?” Remy blurted.

“Oh!” said Emile, startled, “I mean-”

“Great, sweet, they’re in the fridge in the garage, I’ll show you,”

Remy scrambled down from the truck bed and turned to Emile, grabbing him by the waist and lifting him up and back down to stand on the ground. Taking Emile’s hand, Remy tugged him toward the house at a pace that was not quite a run but was certainly fast enough to make Emile stumble a couple of times.

Pulling Emile inside the garage, Remy shut the door behind them and let his forehead fall against it with a loud _thunk._

“Was that as bad as it looked to me?” he whined.

Emile hesitated, and Remy just groaned.

“I mean…” started Emile, “Maybe not- _quite_ that bad…”

Emile rubbed his own arm, floundering and avoiding Remy’s eyes by looking around the room at the various tools hung on the walls. He could feel Remy watching him.

“I didn’t-” Remy blurted suddenly, his voice cracking, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,”

Emile laughed nervously.

“Oh, I, uh- I think Logan was more upset than me, really-”

“I didn’t mean just now,” Remy cut him off.

Swallowing, Emile scuffed his foot on the concrete and didn’t answer.

“… I made you cry,” said Remy quietly, “And we never- talked about it-”

“Remy,” said Emile, quiet and firm, “You don’t- we weren’t even dating. There’s no reason for you to feel bad about that,”

“But you _cried_ ,”

“I mean-”

Emile’s voice cracked, and he shrugged helplessly.

“I mean- yeah,” he croaked, “But that’s- that’s my problem, Rem, not yours,”

Remy’s frown deepened, and then they were just sort of… standing there, both of them awkward and uncertain, and Emile kind of wanted the floor to open up and swallow him.

Remy took one faltering step forward, and then seemed to steel himself and crossed the room. Taking Emile’s hand, he led him over to one of the workbenches, grabbed him by the waist again and lifted him up to sit.

“You probably shouldn’t be carrying me in your binder,” said Emile quietly.

“You’re a slip of a thing, sugar, whether you’re taller than me or not,” Remy replied, “I’ll be fine,”

“And,” he continued resolutely, “The crying, I- want it to be my problem. Or, wait, no, I mean- not that it _is_ a problem, I just- I want. To talk through it. Together,”

Biting his lip, Emile looked down at Remy’s firm, unwavering expression and sighed.

“I don’t really know what there is to talk about,” said Emile, “I was being… really silly, to be honest,”

“I don’t think anything that makes you cry is silly,”

Emile’s face immediately started burning.

“… Okay,” he said quietly.

Remy waited.

“I guess- I guess I just. Know Roman and me are really different, and I guess I thought that…”

Emile cleared his throat awkwardly.  
“… If you wanted to kiss _him,_ there’d be… no way you ever wanted to kiss me,”

It sounded so… _petty_ when Emile said it out loud. Looking down at his lap, he fiddled with the hem of his skirt.

Remy gave a short, nervous laugh.

“I mean- yeah, you and Roman _are_ really different, but – sugar, I promise you are coming out on top of that comparison,”

Emile raised one brow.

“Don’t gimme that look, I’m serious, I mean- do you think I could _date_ Roman? I’d _kill him_ , he’s absolutely obnoxious,”

“Remy,” said Emile, “You _like_ Roman, everyone can tell,”

“Lies and slander on my good name, first off,” said Remy, “Second, I don’t- I don’t like Roman the way I like you,”

“I _know_ that,” said Emile, “I do,”

“You do?”

“I really do,” said Emile, smiling softly, “You… look at me differently,”

He snorted a little.

“Honestly, you look at Roman like you’re about to pick a fight with him usually,”

Reaching up, Emile brushed back a lock of Remy’s hair.

“You’re not wrong,” said Remy, his voice gone all soft and fond. Emile felt his face flush warmer.

“So yeah, it’s different,” said Emile, “I know that,”

Remy nodded, his brow furrowing in concentration. Squeezing his hand gently on Emile’s waist, he stepped closer into the space between Emile’s legs and set his head on Emile’s shoulder. Letting his arms fall around Remy’s shoulders, Emile started fidgeting with the hair on the back of his neck.

Remy mumbled something into the fabric of Emile’s blouse that Emile couldn’t quite make out.

“What was that?” said Emile, “Sorry, I couldn’t…”

Remy pressed even closer, wrapping his arms around Emile’s waist fully and practically hiding in Emile’s chest.

“I love you,” he said gruffly.

Emile’s heartbeat stumbled like someone had taken it out at the knees with a bat.

“That- that’s the difference,” Remy finished quietly.

“ _Oh,”_ said Emile, his voice coming out on an unsteady warble.

“Ah, fuck, I made it weird,” said Remy, pulling back and grimacing, “I _totally_ overdid that, oh my god, what is this a quirky YA novel, please kill me-”

“Remy!” Emile laughed wetly, “I love you too!”

Remy immediately started sputtering, his face rapidly turning crimson.

“I- you- I just-”

Coughing firmly, Remy shook himself, clearly trying to school his face into something resembling calm.

“Great,” he said, voice cracking, “Great, cool. Super cool. Swell,”

He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Swell, I just said _swell; s_ ugar, I need you to know I won’t hold it against you if you wanna break up with me-”

“Oh my goodness, you _dork,”_ giggled Emile, “I love you so much,”

Remy’s embarrassed monologue trailed off, biting his lip and looking up at Emile with a hopeful, painfully vulnerable expression.

“I, um- I love you, too. I know I… said that already, but. I really do, Emi. A lot,”

Emile was smiling so wide his cheeks stung a little, and he leaned down to start peppering tiny kisses all over Remy’s face, snickering while Remy sputtered even more and turned steadily crimson.

“Babe, come on,” muttered Remy.

“What?” said Emile innocently, “Do you _not_ want kisses?”

Remy made a strangled little nonsense noise and Emile couldn’t help but catch the sound out of Remy’s mouth in a proper kiss.

Kissing him back enthusiastically, Remy pulled Emile forward until he was barely resting on the workbench, nearly tipping forward into Remy’s arms, strong and steady as a tree even as Remy giggled nervously into Emile’s mouth.

Emile relaxed into the hold, not even worrying about his precarious position.

Even if he did fall, he was sure Remy would catch him.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to come say hi on [tumblr](tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors.tumblr.com) or [discord](https://discord.gg/A3XMAM3)


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